


Scalebound

by moreagaara, The_LupercalXVI



Category: Original Work, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Aerial Attack, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Assassination, Assassination Plot(s), Blood and Injury, Bonfires, Celebrations, Conspiracy, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Decisions, Deviates From Canon, Dragon Riders, Dragons, Drama, Evacuation, Fanfiction, Fantasy, Government Conspiracy, Healing, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Injury, Injury Recovery, Literature, Magic, Magic storm, Mutation, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Other, Rescue, Science, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Shapeshifting, Speeches, Storms, Werewolves, secret meeting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27560548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreagaara/pseuds/moreagaara, https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_LupercalXVI/pseuds/The_LupercalXVI
Summary: This spawned from an idea between a friend and myself; essentially, "what if 40k but with dragons?".  This is the result, please enjoy.
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

“Then we are in agreement. Xi of the Scalebound has become too much of a liability and a threat,” a low voice said from the recesses of a deep hood; any face within the hood was completely shrouded, and the other six hooded figures seated around the table nodded in response.

“A shame, truly, that we must lose such a desirable test subject. It has been some time since one with so little magic was selected by the dragons,” another voice said; its owner tapped their fingers on the table.  
“We will simply see to it that some of her essence is preserved. That way we may have our experiment without her penchant for questions,” a third voice, higher and smoother than the others stated. “In fact, with her essence, we can always carry out our other experiments…don’t you all agree?”

“Hmm. Still, the question remains. Will it be easier to control her dragon, Camoc, without Xi around, or would it be easier to control Xi without Camoc?” the first voice stated.

“I think we all remember what happened when we killed the Scalebound of the Green Lady.” There was a murmur of agreement around the table and several shaken heads. “Dragons, when grieved, are very difficult to control…especially when the soulbind has had so long to take root. Mortals are much easier to predict.”

“How then do we go about this?” a feminine voice asked. “Dragons are equally difficult to kill as they are to control.”

“Not in the face of overwhelming odds,” the third voice answered. “And I do have some experiments in need of some…ahem, battlefield testing.” The owner of the voice tipped his head up just enough to reveal the hint of a smile. The other voices began to swell in general agreement and embroidering the plan.

“I have made my decision,” a commanding voice from the head of the oval table said, and the swell of voices immediately died down. “Order Xi and her dragon out to the southern wastelands, where they are to quell some tribal violence. The tribes there will be encouraged to violence, specifically against dragons, by spells and diplomacy; you will deploy your mutant soldiers to give the tribes a better chance against the dragon. If they should kill Xi in the process of killing the dragon, no harm done; before they go out, summon them both for a blood test. The vials will be stored and used for cloning experiments.”

The other hooded figures bowed in response. “The council is dismissed. Be about it.” With that, everyone but the leader filed out of the meeting room, leaving the owner of the commanding voice at the top of the spire. After several silent moments, the leader of the council sighed, got up, and removed their hood—it was impossible to tell if they were human, let alone if they were male or female. Even so, they strode over to a tapestry, moved it aside, and walked through the door and up the stairs behind it. The staircase twisted and turned upwards, higher than the spire could feasibly contain.

At last, when the draconic leader exited the staircase and stepped onto a platform without walls. Despite the lack of walls and roof, no wind disturbed the platform or any of the jewels resting on the tables ranging around the platform. The leader strode past every table, until they reached a pedestal with a badly cracked black-green gem the size of a palm. Carefully the leader picked up the jewel, which immediately flared with angry, searing light and heat—but the leader only chuckled. The light and heat tickled faintly. “Hello to you too, old friend. You may have a companion soon. Would you like that?” The gem flared harder, still trying to hurt him in even the slightest way. “I thought you might. Her name is Xi and her dragon is Camoc…”

~~*~~

Xi walked through the scrub plains, alone with her thoughts and a borrowed dragon egg. A part of her had hoped that she would be able to hatch it and get a new dra—no, she mustn’t think about that. Not right now. Not with a storm building up behind her and starting to skid through the sky faster than any creature could fly. Even if she still had Camoc, she would have quickly sought shelter from it—she knew far too many of the Scalebound who thought they could outrun a storm and gotten badly injured or killed as a result.

Not that any of that made her current task any easier...getting away from the Nest without getting caught had been hard enough. Xi was still impressed that she had somehow managed to get out without even being detected. But none of that changed what she had to do now: she had to get entirely out of the area the Scalebound regularly patrolled. And that meant getting to the deep desert...and from the look of those clouds, she didn’t have nearly as much time as she’d thought. She picked up her pace and scanned the horizon for anything that looked like it might keep her out of any floods as the sky grew steadily darker.

Lightning streaked overhead. The wind picked up loose pieces of dirt from the places where the scrub couldn’t keep it pinned. Xi cursed and staggered, trying to keep her balance in the growing wind; she squinted ahead, and the next time lightning flashed, she saw two things of interest. The first was a rocky spire, with a hollow about halfway up; the second was another person, staggering along as if badly wounded. Rain was beginning to fall, and it was already running over the ground in thin rivulets; Xi knew from long experience, both with Camoc and without him, that not only would there be a flood, but it would be fast and harsh.

The wounded man wouldn’t survive a heartbeat in such a flood.

Xi charged towards him, heedless of her own safety. “Come on!” she barked, hooking her arm under the man’s shoulders. He whined and clung to her; Xi felt fur, but didn’t care at present. She tried to help him walk towards the rocky spire, but he passed out before they reached it, leaving her no choice but to carry him. The man was bigger than she was—hells, he was almost a foot taller than she was, and much more muscular—but Xi was a good deal stronger than she looked. She swung him onto her back and carried him as she had once done for an injured Camoc, and walked as quickly as she could towards the spire. The water was up to her ankles by the time she reached it, and Xi thanked the spirits that she’d brought rope along, because now she could use it to tie the man to her back. He stirred when she jerked the knots as tight as she could and still breathe, then started to freeclimb up the spire to the hollow she’d spotted.

“Who’re you…?” he asked; Xi only heard him because his mouth was right next to her ear.

“The person who’s rescuing you!” she answered. “Questions wait until we get all the way up!” Thankfully he held the rest of his questions back and let her focus on climbing. The wind thankfully pressed her against the spire rather than trying to peel her off; and Xi made it to the hollow and crawled inside with the injured man.

She undid the ropes once they were safely in the spire’s hollow. It wasn’t deep, but that meant the wind couldn’t drive any rain into it, nor could it stop Xi from building a small fire—enough to warm the man’s hands and feet and give Xi some steady light by which to examine the man’s wounds. “Who are you? You look Scalebound,” the man said, much clearer and more focused, while Xi checked the bloody spots on the man’s clothes for his injuries. They were deeper than a human could survive; even a Scalebound would be incapacitated by them.

“If I were Scalebound, I’d have a dragon,” Xi retorted, turning her attention to the small fire she’d built. “Whatever I was before doesn’t matter now. Same for you.” She flicked a sideways glance over to him; he was furry, like she’d noticed, and had a wolf’s snout and digitigrade legs. The injuries looked quite a lot like...no. She wasn’t going to think about it. The wounded man’s eyes glittered in the dark.

“You still haven’t told me your name,” he pointed out. Xi looked at the fire and sighed.

“I’m Xi,” she said. It was the name the Scalebound had given her when they’d taken her as an infant. “You?”

The wounded man—the werewolf—looked down. “Anubis. …have you lost half your soul?” Xi didn’t answer, and the werewolf nodded his understanding. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Xi replied, tossing her hair out of her face to hide the numbness in her core.

“No, but I know who did.” Xi paused, then looked at him sidelong once again. “Do you want to hurt them?”

Xi thought about the offer. She knew the loyalty of werewolves, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was implying. Especially given the location and seriousness of his wounds; there was only one organization that would hurt someone in exactly that manner. And now that she thought about it...her face hardened with resolve.

“I accept your offer,” she said. Lightning struck the top of the spire a moment later.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an egg delivery goes very wrong.

The village drums pounded, and stringed instruments wailed in celebration. The voices of the best singers were raised in harmony with the two-stringed instruments, and everyone else danced, and clapped, and cheered. A bonfire in the middle of the town had been lit, and those dancing closest to it occasionally tossed small sachets of dried, good-smelling herbs into the blaze, creating puffs of smoke. Xi and her pet jackal-wolf stood to the edge of the crowd, clapping politely and smiling through the celebration. Her part would come soon. Anubis, her jackal, stood by her side, ears perked, and solemnly keeping watch over the village.

“It’ll be our turn soon, Nubi. I know that much,” she told him, quietly enough that even those nearest her couldn’t hear her over the noise of the party. Anubis looked up at her, huffed through his nose, and then returned his gaze to the party and yawned. Then he stood up, stretched luxuriously, and was about to lie down when something caught his attention on the other side of the crowd. He quickly wove his way through the gathered throng towards whatever had attracted his attention; Xi followed his path with her eyes, but didn’t move; he had performed nearly the same action five times before, and every time before, Xi had found him begging at the feet of a new food vendor. She was, at this point, no longer concerned.

There was a loud burst of cheering from near the bonfire and a shower of sparks, followed by applause. “My adoring public awaits,” Xi muttered to herself with a slight smile. She shook her head a little, and walked towards the bonfire, where the village headwoman was introducing her and that she had a great gift for the village—anyone in the village. She had finished her introduction by the time Xi reached the empty crate that served as a stool.

“Good people, as you have just heard, my name is Xi and am recently of the Scalebound,” she said; impressed murmurs surrounded her, for here, the evils of the Scalebound were not known and the rebels she truly worked with were demonized. Her skin prickled as she spoke, as though a cold wind had blown over her—and only her. Yet the night sky was clear of even the slightest cloud, and the bonfire would suffer no chill at her range. Shouldn’t Anubis have been back by now? She shivered and continued, though she stayed more alert of her surroundings. “I have, indeed, come with a great gift for the village: knowledge, and the possibility of joining with those I call my brothers and sisters.” The rebels, of course, rather than the Scalebound—not that it would do for the village to know that. She paused to allow the excitement to die down, noticing that the children were nudged forward.

“However, this gift is different than it has been in the past, for it is not limited to children alone,” she added. “My brothers and sisters seek anyone who bears an open mind, who is willing to listen, and who wishes to know the truth,” she said, breaking off for a moment to glance up at the starry sky. Had there been a ripple of shadow across them? She lowered her pack to her feet, then resumed speaking. “...but first, my gift is—”

A jackal’s alarm call—Anubis’s call—split the silence. Xi’s eyes widened. “RUN!” she hollered, hopping off the crate and making a break for the edge, only a few heartbeats before a blast of fire from the sky incinerated the crate where she had just been standing. The village rang with screams instead of cheering now; those who had been nearest Xi began to gather around her, begging advice on what to do. “Head southeast, towards the Burning Forest!” she ordered them, pointing in the general direction of the aforementioned forest. “The demons won’t look for you there!” she barked over the protests that the Forest was cursed.

Word that there were demons spread quickly, and word that there was a (relatively) safe place to hide from them was only slightly slower. The village headwoman began to take control of the situation. “Abandon your things! Take only what you have on you! Open all the pens and doors!” she ordered; that way the village’s animals and pets at least had a chance to follow their fleeing people. Anubis charged through the crowd again, still barking his alarm call. Xi nodded to him and began to flee—at an angle, and away from the flow of villagers. Not towards the Burning Forest, but towards the high desert.

The Scalebound would follow her, not the villagers.

Xi put every mote of her strength into running, with Anubis close at her heels; even if she had cover available, it wouldn’t help her. A tree wouldn’t protect her from dragonfire; neither would a large rock, for that matter. A cave would only permit Xi to be cornered while the pursuing dragon filled it with fire. Her only option was to run, as fast as she could, while the dragons flew above and behind her. Thankfully, only the most ancient dragons could both fly and breathe fire at the same time—and the Scalebound would never dare risk such an asset to destroy a single rebellious egg thief.

No sooner did Xi think that than a bush exploded in flames almost directly in front of her—far enough ahead that she could alter course, if only just. A moment later, lightning struck a rock immediately to her right. Xi cursed to herself and had to slow down to avoid obstacles—even if she also had to stay near them so the Scalebounds’ spells had alternative targets. A part of her mind laughed hysterically; just because the dragons couldn’t attack her didn’t mean the Scalebound were also hobbled—Xi herself had taken advantage of that idea more than a few times, when she had had Camoc and been loyal to the Scalebound. For a moment, her mind insisted that the growing wind at her back belonged to Camoc’s wings—the part of her mind that still laughed at her foolishness for believing that running would keep her safe—and Xi’s rational mind had to remind her that Camoc was dead.

The wind. In the village, the wind had been relatively weak, and had been blowing more or less from the south. It was streaming hard from the west now, directly at her back. Xi knew the wind could certainly grow that much stronger in only a few moments—especially if a storm was coming—but she also knew that the wind didn’t completely switch directions like that. Not without magic being involved.

Anubis barked another alert as they zigzagged across the ground, dodging spell after spell from above. Xi looked up. Ahead of her was a wall of blue-purple energy; had she still been in the village, she would have counseled everyone to get underground and stay there until the magical storm had passed. Storms like these only happened in the high desert, and it was almost unheard of for one to form so close to the desert’s edge; they were killers, always, and the rumors were that those who stayed out in them wound up either dead or worse.

Xi would rather die because of a magical storm than at the hands of the Scalebound. She had started to tire, and forced herself to use the last of her strength to reach the storm’s edge. Anubis barked a warning again, though he didn’t leave her side; though he didn’t shift to his human or half-wolf form, Xi knew what he was shouting. Are you crazy?!

“I’d rather gamble with the storm than be captured!” she shouted back over the ever-increasing wind noise and the crackle of the stormfront. The spells had stopped as she approached the edge, and she imagined her pursuers cursing their luck and debating whether to follow her or not. That point became moot when Xi crossed the edge.

She had to stop moving almost immediately; energy flooded her body as if she had been hit by a lightning bolt. She tried to move—either forwards or backwards—but could not. She tried to speak, or even open her mouth, but could not. A more powerful force held her fast; it felt like the storm itself was sentient, and had her and Anubis in its fist. She felt seen; she felt as though the storm was stripping layers of herself away to examine her more closely. Like what you see? she asked it, most of her mind consumed by the hysterical laughter.

There was a pause. Then the storm picked her up and flung her up, high into the sky, and Xi could use her voice again. She screamed, and begged for Camoc to catch her. That she should be falling didn’t seem to matter to the storm; she was tossed around and whirled like a leaf, completely helpless in its grasp. She fell low enough to brush the ground—she reached for it, trying to grab hold of the sand—and then was shot up high enough that she could see the stars above the shimmering blue-purple storm. Neither the stars nor Camoc nor Anubis responded to her cries for help; she had no idea where either she or her best friend were.

At some point, either hours or days later, Xi was at last dropped to the ground. She tried to get up, but the storm thumped her solidly on the back; she grunted from the pressure and panted from the sudden heat surrounding her, too exhausted to scream again. It ceased; she flopped against the ground, no longer able to move or even think about moving. She heard a yelp and a thump of something else fall to the ground right next to her. Then she heard Anubis whining softly. “I’m glad...you’re okay...for now,” Xi gasped out, her vision swimming. For a moment, she thought she felt Camoc’s wing rest protectively on her back, and was fairly certain she heard footsteps. “I guess we were...due for something to go wrong...right?” she asked. Neither Camoc nor Anubis answered. “Considering the last...ten or so missions. They went really well, didn’t they?” The footstep sound was coming closer.

Miss, are you okay? someone far above her asked. “‘m doing...just grand...thanks,” Xi replied. Then the blackness overwhelmed her, and she knew nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peep ownership:
> 
> Games Workshop: WH40k and related  
> The_LupercalXVI: Xi and Anubis  
> Me: the writing

**Author's Note:**

> The tags will be updated as needed; this includes the relationship boxes and the character list. I am going to be including several canon characters, including (but not limited to) Horus, but they don't appear in this chapter and thus do not get to be in the character list (yet).
> 
> Peep ownership:
> 
> Games Workshop: Warhammer 40k and related characters  
> The_LupercalXVI: Xi and Anubis  
> Me: the writing and certain original characters who have not yet appeared


End file.
